Posts Tagged ‘Chicago Landscaping’

It’s time for trees to be the powerhouse of the industry. Sales have been minimal while nursery burn and compost piles have been excessive. It’s been a frightening and maddening situation.

As the downturn slowly rights itself, albeit painfully slowly, tree growers need to push the message of the value of trees to anyone with a pulse. Trees are a necessity, not a luxury.

Study after study points to the millions of dollars trees provide in benefits to cities.

The New York City Parks Department determined the nearly 600,000 street trees in its five boroughs provide an annual benefit of $122 million—more than five times the cost of maintaining them.

Studies by Geoffrey Donovan, an economist and research forester at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, and David Butry, an economist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, found that Portland’s street trees have a capital value of $1.1 billion, which translates to $45 million in benefits annually.

In Minneapolis, street trees resulted in savings of $6.8 million in energy costs and $9.1 million in stormwater treatment. The trees also increased property values by $7.1 million.

Shade trees in Washington, D.C. provide more than $10 million in annual carbon, air quality, stormwater, energy and property value benefits.

Although these amounts are impressive, let’s take it down to the homeowner level. Tell the buyer how trees put money back in their accounts.

Homes shaded by trees have 10-30 percent savings in air conditioning costs compared to homes without shade. And homes with trees sell for an average of 10-20 percent more.

The city of Portland wants to plant 33,000 yard trees and 50,000 street trees by July 2013 as part of its five-year, $50 million Grey to Green initiative. The city’s Treebate program offers a utility-bill credit to homeowners who plant trees in their yards. And it’s still funded for this year. Applications will be available in September.

These are quantitative dollar amounts that consumers can grasp.

Bailey Nurseries in St. Paul, Minn., created a tag and point-of-purchase program called Trees are Cool. The program informs customers that a healthy tree cools the air equivalent to 10 room-sized air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.

Urban trees also provide natural resource management jobs including tree inventory, inspection and care, landscape maintenance, and environmental impact field work and planning.

Street trees benefit business. Studies show that consumers are willing to spend 12 percent more in stores with trees in front of them than without.

Other benefitsSpring Grove Nursery in Mazon, Ill., touts the benefits of its trees to current and future customers. Owners Becky and Jamie Thomas spend a lot of time at schools teaching children how trees clean air pollution, provide oxygen and offer a home for wildlife. The Thomases also teach the school-agers how to plant and care for trees in the landscape.
“Being involved in the community and making sure our trees are part of the community is important to our business,” Becky said in between sessions at the ANLA Management Clinic this year.

Treed neighborhoods reduce crime compared to those without trees. Research also shows that trees reduce stress in the homes, schools and even behind the wheel.

The message must be simple. Use a couple of talking points that speak to the customer’s wallet and their conscience. There’s no need to use scientific terms such as amelioration or transpiration.

Possible partnershipsThe Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) was created to promote sustainable land development and management practices that can apply to sites with and without buildings including. And trees are an integral part of these projects, such as local, state and national parks; conservation easements and buffer zones; transportation rights-of-way; industrial, retail and office parks; military complexes; airports; and public and private campuses.

SITES will provide tools for those who influence land development and management practices and can address increasingly urgent global concerns such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and resource depletion. They can be used by those who design, construct, operate and maintain landscapes, including but not limited to planners, landscape architects, engineers, developers, builders, maintenance crews, horticulturists, governments, land stewards and organizations offering building standards.

This effort began as separate projects of the Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. In 2005, the two groups joined forces to hold a Sustainable Sites Summit in Austin, Texas.

In 2006, the United States Botanical Garden (USBG) joined as a major partner in the Initiative. A Steering Committee representing 11 stakeholder groups was selected to guide the Initiative.

There are more than 150 projects participating in the SITES two-year Pilot Program through June 2012. These projects represent a diverse cross-section of project types, sizes and geographic locations in various stages of development from design to construction and maintenance.

One of the SITES pilot projects is Casey Trees’ offices in Washington, D.C. The Casey Trees Brookland headquarters design uses trees to maximize canopy cover and manage stormwater. The site design showcases trees in various applications including infiltration planters for trees along 90 linear feet of sidewalk, two rain gardens with a diverse planting of trees and soil cells that create large soil volume for tree growth under the sidewalk. At maturity, the tree canopy will increase by 25 percent. The goal of the project is to demonstrate what is possible when public and non-profit institutions work together.

Fall is a great time to plant trees, and at iTrees.com you can plant your way to a colorful fall display! The fall season is a perfect time to plant trees: the weather is mild, and the trees respond well to transplanting this time of year. When trees are planted in the fall, they get a jump start on all of the early spring rain the following season. This helps them establish well before the following summer season. Experts agree that fall planting is an excellent option for tree planting.

Fall is best known for brilliant colors in the landscape, and at iTrees.com we have a spectacular array of trees to choose from! If you are looking for more color in your yard this fall, then click on our Fall Color Trees category at www.iTrees.com for an assortment of fantastic fall color choices. Our selection of locally grown trees is sure to have the fall colors you are looking for. Join us this fall & plant a tree and watch your yard transform into a beautiful explosion of color!

New for the 2011 season, iTrees.com is unveiling even more options for Illinois customers looking for quality trees.In the past, iTrees.com only planted trees for its customers. New this season iTrees.com will offer a delivery only option for homeowners wanting to get their hands dirty & plant their trees themselves.Of course for those tree lovers that still prefer the full service option, iTrees.com will continue to deliver & plant as well.

In addition to more delivery & planting options, iTrees.com has revised the Green Rewards Program.With our new green rewards program you are in charge of your discount destiny! Your volume discount will be a percentage off your total tree purchase that is equal to the amount of trees you are ordering. The volume discount will be applied on orders from 3 to 15 trees. If you are ordering more than 15 trees, please call or email us for a personalized quote. For example if you order 3 trees you will receive a 3% discount, if you order 7 trees you will receive a 7% discount, if you order 11 trees you will receive 11% off - the savings go on & on!

But let’s talk about new trees! The 2011 Collection this season is outstanding – some of the best selections available for Illinois landscapes!Browse our extensive list of species to see all the new varieties ready to deliver right to your door. We look forward to serving all our Illinois customers this spring!

Help us celebrate Arbor Day this spring & plant a tree! Across the globe, millions will be joining together to plant trees in communities & back yards. Keep your eye on our website for special Arbor Day Sales in April – you won’t want to miss out! For more on the National Arbor Day Foundation click here.

It’s always exciting to have your trees produce for you, and with a couple of maples in the yard, your pancakes can be complemented with some homemade syrup. It might sound difficult, to buy mature trees then actually use them to produce syrup, but it’s far easier than it sounds.

Maple syrup is a classic favorite at breakfast tables everywhere. English chemist Robert Boyle said it best in 1663 when he wrote “There is in some parts of New England a kind of tree whose juice that weeps out its incision, if it is permitted slowly to exhale away the superfluous moisture, doth congeal into a sweet and saccharin substance and the like was confirmed to me by the agent of the great and populace colony of Massachusetts.”

Well, move over New England. It’s time for Chicago to make some syrup! (more…)

Winter-onset depression is not unlikely in the mid-west, where the sun starts to dip early in the day and the cold creeps into the bones. But a beautiful evergreen tree in your front yard is a nice way to combat it. Green to combat the blues. And it’s not to late to add it to your Chicago landscaping project.

In fact, planting season doesn’t end for a couple of weeks, so there is still more than enough time to adorn your yard with a beautiful tree to sway in the winter breeze, because it’s the simple things, the elegance of it all, the joy of life in the cold winter … it’s not too late to have an Illinois landscaping project that can turn your snowy white lawn into a veritable collage of illustrious colors.

Of course, it also isn’t too late to buy mature trees and plant them, even if they are not ones to keep color in the lawn, they will be waiting reminders of the breath of life Spring will bring, waxen statuettes waiting to come alive when the first bit of sunlight begins to seep back over Lake Michigan and flood the beautiful streets and unique Illinois landscaping that is one of the reasons we all call this mighty city home.

It’s that time of year again. The jingles and carolers start appearing on the radio and on street corners, Bing Crosby replacing Bruce Springsteen. And the Illinois landscape changes as well, becoming perhaps even more beautiful than ever. One of the reasons: the addition of the Daley Plaza Christmas tree. (more…)

November is upon us, and that means more than turkey, family gatherings and a few days off work. It means winter’s almost here, and planting season is about to come to a close. While winter is a great time to browse and buy mature trees to plant come spring, it isn’t too late to have a mature tree planted in the yard and become part of your Illinois landscaping project.

Planting season ends as December begins, which leaves more than enough time to both plant windbreaks and prepare for the upcoming seasons. It might seem like a strange idea to buy mature trees with winter upon us, but it’s actually one of the best times to do so. (more…)

This has certainly been an uncharacteristically cold and rainy October! With the dingy weather, it can be easy to stay cooped up and forget about the beautiful changes of the season. But don’t starve your senses of the exquisite Illinois landscaping around you– the winter months are quickly approaching! Thriving this season, and painting the scene in shades of crimson are the Autumn Blaze Maple, and October Glory Red Maple. The Emerald Lustre Norway Maple splashes a bit of golden green across the countryside, flanked by the rich orange hues of the Majesty Sugar Maple, and deep greens of the Fall Fiesta Maple. (more…)

"Working with iTrees made our landscaping experience so much easier! Since we didn't know much about design, they helped us place and plant the trees we bought online. Changing our home's yard was a breeze!"

- Bridgette Miller

"iTrees.com was one of the few places I could find that sold large trees. When I needed privacy from the street at my new home, buying trees online and them having them delivered and planted for me was the perfect quick fix."